60 Figs

60 Figs! My potted Brown Turkey fig has 60 figs! The tree has grown substantially and vigorously, as all trees in the Ficus genus are wont to do- the roots are tremendous, and actually the tree could stand to be repotted into a larger pot, though the one it's in now is almost 15 gallons. At the base of the tree, to dress it up and give it some shoes, I planted a few Echeverias and mulched with some seashells and stones I collected from a beach in Italy, which remind me of the trip every time I water.




The tree is on our front porch along with a Meyer lemon tree, a potted pink jasmine that trails up a trellis that creates the porch enclosure and smells amazing in the spring, a Brugmansia that looks like crap when it's not in bloom (and needs to be watered almost every day when it's hot, and I don't, which is probably why it looks like crap- oops!) and some huge Echeverias. Oh- and an little baby Agave americana 'Mediopicta' that was a sweet gift and is really adorable.



Another gratuitous shot of the fig tree and my neighborhood in the background- it's laden with figs, suckah!


PS- The fig is major history. The first written records of figs were in approximately 2500 BC. The Egyptians wrote about them, as did the Greeks, who ate them whether rich or poor. The asp that killed Cleopatra was brought to her in a basket of sweet ripe figs. It made it's way to China, to Rome, to Mexico via Cortes, and then to North America by 1790. It is mentioned in the Bible and the Garden of Eden. It is also one of the sacred trees of Islam.

If your favorite tree is a fig tree- Ficus carica- this is what it supposedly says about you: Sensible ~~ Very strong, a bit self-willed, independent, does not allow contradiction or arguments, loves life, family, children and animals, a bit of a butterfly, good sense of humor, likes idleness and laziness, practical talent, intelligent.

It just seems like a good tree to greet visitors at the front door.....